


Phantom of the Court

by Steangine



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, M/M, friendship relationship, not romantic - Freeform, they're children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 06:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14743640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steangine/pseuds/Steangine
Summary: There was this village far away from everything. Daiki hated it.There was this court on the top of a hill. Daiki loved it. And there he met someone to play with.[Requested on tumblr - AU - friendship]





	Phantom of the Court

Daiki hated the place where his parents dragged him on vacation every year.

Always the same old boring people, always the same old boring shops, always the same boring old destination: a little village near the sea where he seemed to be the only child. There was nothing for him to do, except wandering around, going to the beach, wandering around again and buying an ice-cream – or waiting for someone to buy him some; probably in that place he was the only young person the inhabitants saw in a whole year and that gave Daiki a privileged status, which meant free ice-creams.

However, free ice-creams weren’t enough for him to defy a decomposing boredom. Daiki brought with him his ball, but it wasn’t useful at all, since he was always alone on the abandoned courtyard. Someone, probably one who had nothing better to do, settled it on the top of a steep hill at the end of a difficult path. During summer it turned into an energy drainer: no trees or places to have some refreshing shadows to the top and whoever went there was at the mercy of the sun. Daiki was young and stubborn enough to reach it and had so much stamina that, once he reached it, he still had energies to play.

Of the two rings, only one was a complete circle, the other one was a scarce half, as if someone sew it. Daiki counted more holes than the last year, but that was the only place he truly liked – except the beach, but that one turned boring too in short time; the courtyard, for how it could be ruined, remained Daiki’s favorite’s place.

Even if he was alone.

“Aomine Daiki receives the ball! He goes over two opponents with one swift move on the right!” Daiki dribbled two invisible players. “He aims for the basket. There is only a handful of seconds left, can he do it? Throws and…” The ball bounced on the square and fell directly inside the ring. “…he did it! A buzzer beater! And Aomine Daiki gives the Lakers the victory! The championship is theirs! Winners! Winners!” Daiki run in circles around the court, his arms opened to his sides as if he was an airplane. “The crowd is going crazy!”

His public were some lazy grasshopper which chirped in the distance. Daiki’s arms fell along his hips.

“Ah, whatever… in this place even this badass victory sucks.”

The ball rolled down a small slope. Daiki was fast at following its path and taking it before it could roll away to the village. He glided on the yellowish grass, felt the ball into his hands and let himself fall down on the back. He raised a hand to protect his eyes and looked at the sky.

“Booring…”

When he turned to the court, he saw something. Someone. A person. For the first time there.

A new feeling built inside him, skyrocketing his excitement to the stars as he realized that the shadow seemed that of a child. A child there meant that probably he had someone to play basketball with. Daiki dashed back on the court.

“Hey!” He reached it with a jump. “Do you want to play…” He looked around. “…basketball?”

The child was gone. In a blink of an eye. Daiki observed his surroundings, but the only living being except him were the trees. And trees couldn’t play basketball. Even if they could be livelier than all the people living there. Everyone moved so slowly that they remained stuck into a moment of the past and didn’t seem to be moving forwards anymore.

Daiki snorted.

“Ah, just my imagination. Who would bring a child here? Except my parent…”

There were some children. In the nearby town. Nearby was a euphemism since it took an hour by bus to reach it.

Daiki was alone and bored. With his ball, his court, but always alone. Until the previous year, sometimes he spotted some adults hanging around, sitting on the lonely bench or even under some trees. But that year he hadn’t seen anyone yet.

He realized it while he was sitting on his ball and drinking the fruit juice his mother gave him. He was wearing a baseball hat, all soaked in sweat as his clothes were. Even if it was full afternoon, he didn’t search for the relief of the shadows under the trees; Daiki only wanted to play basketball.

He heard a rustle behind him and turned. It was the usual black cat. He turned his head back, with the intention of gazing a bit more into the blurred shape of the far houses composing the village. But there wasn’t the village in front of him anymore. A kid appeared.

Daiki fell from the ball and emitted a shriek of surprise and pain.

“Sorry.” The kid spoke softly. “I didn’t want to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me!”

Daiki stood up. He was at least a palm of his hand taller than the kid, who was so pale that it seemed like he could have melted under the scorching sun, despite him wearing a baseball cap. The same cap he was wearing. Daiki forgot the boy made him fall from his ball and looked at him in amaze.

“Los Angeles Lakers! You like them too!”

“Yes.” He nodded. “They’re my favorite team.”

“Mine too!” Daiki was overexcited. “Do you want to play basketball?!”

Somehow, there was a small part of Daiki that believed the boy would have left for only-the-adults-knew what reason. Instead, he nodded again. “I was going to ask you.” And smiled. “My name is Kuroko Tetsuya.”

“Aomine Daiki!”

Daiki couldn’t believe that in such a place, he managed to make a friend.

“Really, you’re eight? I’m nine!”

Daiki realized two things: Tetsuya really really sucked at basketball and they got along immediately. Tetsuya loved basketball, he confessed, but he felt like he wasn’t that good. Daiki didn’t sugar-coat his words and agreed; Tetsuya missed most of the shots, was slow, his dribbles were predictable and stealing him the ball was as easy as stealing it from a newborn. But, until that moment, he was the only one who wasn’t good enough for Daiki and didn’t go away crying because of it. Daiki was talented, and he only wanted to have fun. However, children of his age didn’t want him to play, because he always won, and older players mocked him, not allowing him to take part in their games. Tetsu was special.

“We’re almost the same age.” Tetsuya said.

“I’ve never seen you around. It’s the first time here?”

“No. I live here.”

Daiki frowned. “No way!”

“I do. With my grandmother. Usually during summer holidays, we go on the mountain, but this year we couldn’t, so we stayed here.”

“Lucky! We managed to meet!”

Tetsuya wasn’t as energic as Daiki was. He was calm for being eight years old, much calmer than any children Daiki had ever met.

“Yes.” Tetsuya looked at the sky. “I’ve never played with anyone. They always said I was too weak.”

“Well, you are.” Daiki didn’t notice Tetsuya was hurt. “But it’s fun playing with you. They miss a lot of things.”

“You think so?”

“Of course! And you know a lot of things about basketball! You can do it. You come to this hill every day after all!! And, as long as I’m here, we’ll play every day!”

Tetsuya smiled at him. Daiki wasn’t sure, but probably the faint red on his cheeks was a blush of embarrassment.

“Okay. Every day.”

“We’ll meet tomorrow then?”

Tetsuya nodded. “Sure. At the court again.”

Daiki raised his fist. “Promise?” When Tetsuya tilted his head, he chuckled. “A fist bump, Tetsu.”

“Ah… like this?”

Tetsuya’s fist was smaller than his and Daiki barely felt the bump of their knuckles.

A summer which gave the omen of being the same boring replica of the previous, turned out to be the best Daiki had ever had. Big thoughts for a nine-year old boy, but it was really a turnover for Daiki having someone he could play with. Each afternoon, when he left the beach with his parents, he didn’t even take a shower and run to the court, where Tetsuya was always waiting for him.

“I never see you at the beach.”

“I go early in the morning with my grandmother. She can’t stand the sun.”

“And your parents?”

“They work in Tokyo.”

Tetsuya loved vanilla ice creams, had a black cat and was trying to convince his parents to buy a dog too. He started playing basketball because he once saw a match on tv and was so mesmerized that he bugged, for the first time, his parents until he got a ball to play with.

“I don’t really know.” Daiki looked at the leaves over them; leaning on the grass with Tetsu and talking about basketball was nice. “I don’t remember when it happened, I just started playing and I loved it.”

“You’re really good.”

“But you know a lot of things Tetsu. You only lack stamina. With some training, you’ll be good.”

Daiki turned towards Tetsuya. Tetsuya smiled, but, for some strange reason, he looked sad.

“Hey!” Daiki propped on his elbows. “You don’t believe me, don’t you?”

Tetsuya shook his head. “No, I do. Thanks, Daiki-kun.” He looked up. “I want to become strong and enter the national basketball team. And I want to win the NBA too!”

“Hey, maybe we’ll play for the same team!”

“Or we’ll be opponents.”

“Not in the national team.”

Tetsuya chuckled. “Of course not. But I really wonder how it is…”

“Winning a match?”

“No. Playing on a real basketball court. There are not basketball’s clubs where I live.”

“Just wait for middle school and you’ll see Tetsu. You’ll raise your medals and cups to the sky.”

“Yes…”

Daiki sighed. “When I’ll be back home, nobody will want to play with me again.”

“Huh?”

“Because they say I’m too strong…”

“If you are strong, you’ll enter a strong team.”

“But if there’s no one who wants to play against me…”

“The world is big, Daiki-kun. You’ll find someone for sure. And you’re just nine.”

“Yes… but if nobody wants to play with me, it’ll get boring and if I want to quit?”

“If you’re worried about it, then you love basketball and will never quit.”

They looked at each other.

“Maybe that someone that will play against me is you.”

“But I’m too weak.”

“Just practice and you’ll see, Tetsu!”

Tetsuya looked back at the piece of sky among the leaves. “I’ll do…”

One day to go. For the first time, Daiki didn’t want to leave. He was having fun with Tetsuya and he didn’t know when he would have met with him again. When they were together, they’d never talked about remaining in contact, sharing addresses or telephone numbers. Daiki felt like the moments shared on that ruined court were crystalized in that summer and time didn’t exist: no future, only the present where they played.

That was why, when he realized his holidays there were almost over, he felt a sinister knot pressing against his throat, fighting to come out as tears. He didn’t want to leave, but Tetsuya too lived in Tokyo, because his parents worked there. He never asked, but that was his mental association and Daiki found in it some relief.

Before heading to the court, he decided to go buy two ice creams to the small grocery shop in the village’s center. A little square, few shops, few people defying the summer sun. And a car. There were few cars in that village and none of them ever run so fast to be a danger. Except that one.

Daiki didn’t hear it in time. He crossed the road. A huge hand grabbed him from his t-shirt and dragged him away. Daiki fell, the ice creams rolled under the wheels of the car, mashed on the road. He didn’t realize what happened and looked up at the concerned adult who had just saved his life, the old man always sitting on the small chair in front of the grocery shop.

“Boy, are you okay?”

“My ice creams…”

“If you think about the ice creams, you’re probably okay.” The old man sighed. “These people from the city, they think they can run as fast as their cars allow them. We already had an incident and that was enough.”

The owner of the shop, as old as the other man, got out and understood what happened with a single glance.

“I heard a car. Is everything okay?”

The other man nodded. “Yes. But we were this close…” He put his thumb and index so close that they almost touched. “…to having another incident. Like the of our little Tetsuya.”

Daiki stood up. “Tetsuya?”

The man who saved him patted his big hand on his back to wipe away some dust; Daiki wriggled away from him.

“Kuroko Tetsuya.” The man repeated. “He died last year.”

“Shut up! He’s just a kid.” The owner made a gesture with his hand as if he was shooing away an insect. “Come inside, I’ll get you another ice cream for free.”

But Daiki turned his back to them and run away.

Tetsuya was waiting at the court. As always. Daiki wasn’t sure what kind of expression he had on his face, but his heart beat fast and the knot in his throat tingled painfully.

“Tetsu…” His voice broke in a little sigh. “You’ll never know what kind of lie some adults told me…”

However, Daiki knew it wasn’t a lie. He read it on Tetsuya’s face.

“You discovered it, don’t you?”

“But we ate ice creams together… dead people don’t eat ice creams…” Daiki rubbed his eyes. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just… wanted to play. All I told you was true. My parents work in Tokyo and I used to come here for few days before going to the mountain with my grandmother. And nobody has ever wanted to play basketball with me. So I always climbed all the way up to play, even if it was really harsh for me. I wasn’t as strong as you are.” Tetsuya looked away. “I just saw you playing here and wanted to play myself… sorry.”

“But you’ll never play basketball!” Daiki surprised him, yelling from his chest. He burst into tears. “You’ll never get into middle school, you’ll never play on a real court, you’ll never win the NBA! That’s not fair! I…” He sniffled. “…I wanted you to play…”

The knot burst in countless tears. Daiki wiped away the snot from under his nose but couldn’t do anything to stop his sobs.

“If Tetsu doesn’t play. I don’t want to!”

He threw his ball away. Tetsuya run to retrieve it.

“Daiki-kun, don’t throw basketball away like that.” That wasn’t enough to calm him down. “I don’t want you to quit basketball only because I cannot play anymore. I want you to play and have fun, as we had these days.”

Tetsuya handed him the ball. Daiki shook his head.

“No… bring it with you.” His voice was drowsy of tears. “I can buy another one…”

“But I don’t know where I’ll go.”

“That’s why it’s better having ball with you! Who knows if there are shops who sell them!” He rubbed his eyes. “When I’ll win the NBA and the Olympics, I’ll bring you my medal.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want!” Daiki sobbed, his face was again a mess of tears. “Because I bet you would have become stronger than me. You deserve them!”

Tetsuya smiled. Daiki thought his silhouette was thinner, almost turning transparent under the scorching sun. He was sure that Tetsuya’s eyes were filled with tears.

“Now… I have to go.”

Daiki made a step forward, reaching out both arms as if he could have done something to stop it. “I don’t want you to go.”

Tears silently rolled down Tetsuya’s cheek, touching his smile.

“I don’t want either. But I have to.” Daiki could see the trees through his dim body. “Thank you for playing with me.” He hugged the ball. “I’ll treasure this.”

Everything of him was disappearing. His colors were fading, and the edges of his body trembled, like a mirage on the desert. But Daiki was sure he played with Tetsu and they ate ice creams together and leaned on the grass giving shapes at the clouds in the sky.

Daiki raised his fist. Tetsuya’s bump was truly weak.

“Goodbye, Tetsu.”

“Goodbye, Daiki-kun.”

Daiki blinked. Tetsu was gone.

_ 15 years later _

“It’s so hot…”

“I hate Japan’s summers...”

“I thought it’s worse in America, Taigacchi.“

Daiki turned to his teammates. “I didn’t even ask you to come! Shut up Ryouta!”

“Why are you so mean to me, Daikicchi?!”

That old village was always the same. There were old roads, old shops, old people. Even if some components of his basketball teams, and friends, decided to go there, Daiki knew that they were the temporary young side of that tiny scrap of world. Where the place where Daiki wanted to reach was on the top of a steep hill.

They were soaking wet and only reached half way.

“I should have remained behind with the others.” Ryouta wondered with a loud voice.

“You all should have remained in Tokyo!” Daiki snorted. “Who told you to come?”

Taiga shrugged. “It seemed interesting and far enough from journalists and someone who could recognize us. Seijuurou said it.”

If he had known that when he said he was going to the seaside in an old quiet village, everyone would have followed, he would have stayed quiet. He could expect it from Seijuurou and Shintarou, who were old inside, but that Taiga, Ryouta and Atsushi would have agreed was a surprise.

Taiga frowned. “By the way, where are you bringing us?”

“I’m not bringing you anywhere! You followed me!”

Ryouta had to run to catch up with them. “The mobile’s line isn’t very good here. At least we are together. Even if this slope is so arduous.”

“That’s a lame excuse.”

“Hey, isn’t that Lakers cap too little for your head?” Taiga noticed.

Daiki wanted to make them roll down the hill all the way back the village. Unfortunately, he knew their coach would have killed him, so he restrained his deep instinct.

“Shut up, Taiga.”

Taiga glared at his back. “By the way, why this court forgotten by everyone when there’s a new one near the village? I mean, even old people didn’t know there is one here until you told them.”

Daiki gave them a detached glance. “When I was nine, I run all the way there to play. Look at the members of the Japanese Olympic basketball team, who cannot even match my pace.”

He ignited a fire in them. Both Taiga and Ryouta kept his pace to the top without complaining anymore.

The basketball court was the same as Daiki remembered. Ruined, not more ruined, but as ruined as it was years ago, when he first met with Tetsu. And last saw him.

“If we fall here, we’ll get hurt.” Ryouta noticed. “It’s not good for playing anymore.”

“I didn’t come here to play.”

_ Not with you. _ Daiki wanted to add, but just shrugged. He took out from the pocket of the shorts the gold medal of the Olympics.

“What do you want to do?” Taiga expected a harsh throwback. Instead, Daiki looked very sad.

“I brought this to a friend.” He explained walking to the pole which had the intact ring. “We used to play here.”

Taiga and Ryouta looked at each other.

“Well then…” Ryouta hesitated at finding an excuse. “…I think I’ll go take a look around. There’s a nice view from here. You come too, Taiga?”

“Yes, of course. We’re near those trees, Daiki.”

Daiki looked at them going away. He tied his medal at the base of the pole and sat down. With a quick glance, he checked that his friends were out of sight.

“Tetsu, I won the Olympics.” He scratched his head. “Well, _we_ won. Those two idiots are my teammates… and I like playing one on one against them. Even if you were the best. They aren’t at your level.” He chuckled.

Without Tetsu, that court looked more desolated than it was.

“I hope… you’re playing, wherever you are. And that you’re having fun. Because… I’m having… I had a bad time during middle school, but it’s all over. Because you told me to have fun and I hung in there and…”

Before he could stop it, he was crying.

“…and sometimes I think that you could be on the court next to me, but you’re not there. And it’s stupid, because we met once, but we became friends. You loved to play with me, even if I was stronger and…” He hid his face against his knees. “…and I’m so stupid, because you had to play. You loved it so much and nobody has ever wanted to play with you. I’m so sorry…”

“Daiki-kun.”

Daiki raised his head. Tetsuya was sitting in front of him on the ball Daiki gave him many years before. He was as Daiki remembered him: small, with a tiny smile and his baseball cap.

“Tetsu…”

“Daiki-kun, isn’t that cap too little for you now?”

“We meet after so long and this is all you want to say?!”

Tetsuya chuckled. “I’m so happy. You did great.”

“That’s thanks to you.”

Tetsuya shook his head. “You did everything. I wasn’t even there.”

“No, you were.” He smiled at Tetsuya’s puzzled look. “I always thought about you. Like, what would have Tetsu done? And… well, like that.”

“I’m just eight. I know less than you.”

“But you liked basketball more than me. That gave me strength.”

Tetsuya blushed.

“First the Olympics. Next the NBA.”

“Yes… the Cleveland got in touch with me though. Not the Lakers…”

“Then you’ll beat the Lakers and will be stronger than them.”

Tetsuya raised his fist. It was so small, so pale. But Daiki felt the small bump against his knuckles.

“Hey Tetsu, I brought the medal for you.”

“But that’s yours.”

“It’s a present, for you.”

“Then, I accept.” Tetsuya bowed. “Thank you.” He stared at the golden circle as if it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Daiki looked at him and wanted the time to go back. He wanted to go back right before the incident and save Tetsu. Or maybe right before the car risked running over him, that day of fifteen years before, so that he would have reached Tetsu.

“Daiki…” Tetsuya looked at his feet and, for the first time, Daiki realized he was a grown man, while his friend remained frozen in time. “…I just wanted to ask you… something.”

Daiki stood up. “We have a ball and a court.” He smiled. “We have everything.”

It was almost like turning back the clock. They were again back in those summer, when they played without worries just because they loved basketball. Daiki had fun playing but playing again with Tetsu was like finding an old game you used to love and almost forgot about it. Beautiful and nostalgic.

They stopped when Tetsuya took the ball and didn’t move to bounce or throw it. Daiki understood what it meant from his eyes.

“Time to go. I know.” He scratched his neck. “See you next time then. NBA medal.”

Tetsuya’s smile disappeared. “Daiki... there won’t be a next time.”

Daiki froze. “What?”

“There won’t be. I’m sorry.”

“Wait. I have so many things to tell you. I–“

“I’m so happy I got to meet you one more time. I’m glad you’re doing okay and that you have friends.”

Daiki’s mind was trying to work, but something was wrong. His gears didn’t know how to turn anymore, and he had no output on how to react to that. That was the last time. After so many years he went back, and he wasn’t even hoping to meet him. Daiki had lived in between the idea that Tetsuya never existed and the certainty he would have met him again.

But Tetsu existed. He was in front of him, drenched in sweat after the most wonderful game Daiki had ever had since his childhood. And now they wouldn’t have met anymore.

“Tetsu!” He almost yelled. “Are you doing fine?!”

Tetsuya startled. Then he nodded. “I am. Thank you for everything, Daiki.”

His colors were starting to fade, like the last time.

“No, wait!”

Daiki run to the pole. He cursed himself because of the knot too tight.

“Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go!”

When he finally untied it, he turned. A part of him knew it was too late. So, he almost cried in happiness when he saw that the blurry shape of Tetsuya was still here.

Daiki knelt in front of him and put the medal around his neck.

“This is yours. You’re my champion, Tetsu.”

Tetsuya looked at the medal in amaze; his tears were silent.

“I wanted to meet you before I died, Daiki.”

“If I could bring you back, Tetsu, I’d give all the basketball games I will ever play from now on. I wouldn’t put a foot on the court anymore, if this meant–“

Tetsuya faded in front of his eyes. Silent as a blooming flower, painful as the scorching sun.

Daiki sat on the center of the court and cried. He cried out all his tears, cried until his eyes and throat hurt. When he felt like he emptied himself of any decided it was time to go back. He grabbed the hat, too tiny for his head, which had fallen while he was playing against Tetsuya.

Taiga and Ryouta were sitting under the trees. Tetsu and him used to lean under those trees and talk a lot. His chest hurt at the memory.

“Oh, Daikicchi is here! Daikicchi, Taigacchi keep saying that cloud looks like a hot dog! To me it’s more like a banana!”

Daiki looked up. “You’re both insane. That’s a popsicle.”

Taiga puffed. “That’s even less probable!”

His friends reached him. Taiga put an arm around his neck. “Come on. Let’s go back and head to the beach.”

“Yes!” Ryouta agreed. “Why don’t we make a sand castle?”

Daiki didn’t know how much they understood but was glad they were there.

“That’s so childish, Ryouta.”

“Daikicchi! So mean!”

Daiki looked back at the court for the last time.

_ Farewell, Tetsu. _

**Author's Note:**

> I cried the whole time. While writing it and reviewing it. I won't talk to me for a month.


End file.
